› Oliver Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) win the WRC2 category and reach the finish in fifth position overall
› Lauri Joona/Janni Hussi (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) finish third in WRC2 and win WRC2 Challenger classification at an unusually wet Finnish championship round
› Three Škoda crews on the podium of the WRC Masters Cup classification
Jyväskylä (FIN), 4 August 2024 – Winning WRC2 at Rally Finland, Oliver Solberg has made a big step towards the title. The 22-year-old Swede and British co-driver Elliott Edmondson lead the category from start to finish. After the ninth round of the FIA World Rally Championship, Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 driver Solberg tops the WRC2 overall standings with an advantage of 28 points.
Oliver Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) powered into the WRC2 lead already on the rally-opening super special in the streets of Jyväskylä. When the rally hit the proper forest stages on Friday morning, the Toksport WRT crew realised, that their strongest competitors were new faces to WRC2. The only driver to regularly match Solberg’s speed on the ultra-fast gravel roads of central Finland was Jari-Matti Latvala, three times overall winner of Rally Finland. “15 years ago, I was fighting with Petter Solberg. Now I’m going head to head with his son. It’s a strange feeling,” Latvala joked.
Little impressed by the ever changing grip conditions during a rainy Friday leg, Solberg/Edmondson posted fastest WRC2 times on five of the day’s nine stages. At the end of the first leg, the Swedish-British Škoda crew led Latvala and co-driver Juho Hänninen by 24.1 seconds. “It's been a clean day,” Solberg said. “I just enjoyed myself, drove clean and not too fast.” Solberg/Edmondson continued their commanding performance also during the Saturday leg. With two more stage wins, including one on the challenging Ouninpohja stage, they extended their advantage over Latvala/Hänninen to 47.6 seconds.
In contrast, the hopes for Gus Greensmith and co-driver Jonas Andersson ended on Friday afternoon. The WRC2 winners of Safari Rally Kenya damaged their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 during a small offroad excursion (SS7) and retired. Another crew experiencing bad luck were Robert Virves and co-driver Aleks Lesk. The Estonians on board a RaceSeven run Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 were listed third in WRC2 on Friday evening. On the way to the famous Ouninpohja stage on Saturday (SS16), they had to work on a mechanical problem during a road section. “In the hurry to get to the stage start in time, we forgot to close the bonnet properly. It opened 300 meters into the stage,“ Virves described later. With most of the view out of the windscreen blocked, Virves/Lesk lost more than three minutes during the mythical 33-kilometres stage. The eventually finished eighth in WRC2.
The Estonian’s mishap promoted Lauri Joona and co-driver Janni Hussi up to third position in WRC2. Sharing a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 of team TGS Worldwide, the local heroes held fellow Finns Mikko Heikkilä/Kristian Temonen (Toyota) at bay. In the end, Joona/Hussi not only climbed onto the WRC2 overall podium, but also won the WRC2 Challenger classification.
With rain also hitting the Sunday stages, Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson concentrated on managing their lead. Despite not posting more fastest WRC2 times, they celebrated their third category victory of the season with a lead of 39 seconds. “Fantastic feeling, amazing to get congratulations from Jari-Matti,“ Solberg smiled at the finish. „It's been a great weekend, big thanks to the team, the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 was perfect as always. Fantastic to have another win.“ With this result, Solberg increased his WRC2 overall lead to 28 points over runner-up Sami Pajari (Toyota). The Toksport WRT crew even finished fifth in the overall classification of Rally Finland.
Top-3 of the WRC Masters Cup was a full Škoda affair. Mexican Ricardo Triviño and co-driver Diego Fuentes from Spain won the sub-category reserved for drivers over the age of 50 years. Uğur Soylu/Sener Guray from Turkey came second. Third Škoda crew on the podium were Italians Maurizio Chiarani/Flavio Zanella.
After three very fast events with smooth gravel stages, the FIA World Rally Championship turns to rougher surfaces. Acropolis Rally Greece is next (5-8 September 2024), one of the toughest events of the series.
Number of the rally: 128.2
When Oliver Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson sped through the legendary Ouninpohja stage, the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 travelled the 32.98 kilometres long test with an average speed of 128.2 kph.
Rally Finland, 1-4 August 2024, Result WRC2
1 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (SWE/GBR), Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, 2:33:57.4 hours
2 Jari-Matti Latvala/Juho Hänninen (FIN/FIN), Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, +39.0 seconds
3 Joona Lauri/Janni Hussi (FIN/FIN), Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, +1:13.9 minutes
4 Mikko Heikkilä/Kristian Temonen (FIN/FIN), Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, +1:16.5 minutes
5 Georg Linnamäe/James Morgan (EST/GBR), Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, +1:51.5 minutes
Standings WRC2/Drivers (after 9 of 13 events)
1 Oliver Solberg (SWE), Škoda, 111 points (from 6 rallies)
2 Sami Pajari (FIN), Toyota, 83 points (from 5 rallies)
3 Yohan Rossel (FRA), Citroën, 71 points (from 4 rallies)
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